AWKWARD ZOMBIE

Pope already said he wasn't going to exercise that option.

I am Catholic and I can tell you that the Church has indeed made progress since its inception. I went to a Dominican Catholic High School where the Principal - who is also a nun - taught anatomy, the biology teacher taught the theory of evolution, and the earth science teacher taught about how the universe was formed billions of years ago at the Big Bang and that the Earth revolves around the Sun. We had a World Religion class where we were taught about the many belief structures of the world and to respect them all. The sex ed teacher - who, a few years after I took his class, re-entered the clergy as a Catholic Priest - taught us about how contraceptives work, how they are used (he never handed any out of course), how sex works with a heavy focus on biology, and he taught us not to discriminate against gay or transgendered people.

So no, the Catholic Church is nowhere near archaic or ignorant as you'd think.

Funny, when I went to a Catholic school in grade 8 we had our only sex ed class which was when we had an old guy come in, tell us abortion is terrible, then showed us a video where a woman said that she was the resulting baby from a rape, and that she turned out fine so that means that everyone will have the same experience, told us to abstain from sex, said condoms fail often, and are a sin to use, didn't even mention birth control, then showed us photos of aborted fetuses. It varies so much, it really depends on where you live. And the fact is that the Vatican is still insanely far behind in the human rights department.

That isnt the standard doctrine though, thats the Vaticans official position, and aside from considering evolution to be a viable possibility, Catholicism is INCREDIBLY backwards compared to the rest of the west, especially on sexual and social rights matters. Gay rights, birth control, abortion, that sort of thing is forbidden by them. Being slightly less bad than when you started doesnt mean theyre in a good place.

I know that it's not the Super-pop flyin' Love and Peace for Everyone organization that everyone wants it to be. It just irritates me that people still think that the Catholic Church has made zero progress since its founding all those years ago.

Its inevitable that it would have some progress one way or another, complete social inertia is impossible, but it hasnt actually done the stuff its supposed to be doing. I know I cant blame all of its followers for what their leaders do, but when the guys claiming to speak for God does the exact opposite of what theyre supposed to be doing, there's something seriously wrong with the organisation. Not that its the only religion headed by hypocrites and liars, but thats not the topic. Yet the Pope and his ilk are still treated like the absolute authority in the Church despite ample proof of his crimes.

I agree; in my opinion he has not lived up to the standards expected of the Papal Office. I can only hope (and pray, of course) that the next Pope will be able to do more. The Church's World Youth Day is coming up this summer in Rio de Janeiro, so that will be an important event for him to show that he's made of sterner stuff.

Unless the next guy is planning sweeping reforms in regards to the Churchs attitude towards homosexuality, birth control, gender issues, abortian and civil rights, no pathetic lip service in the world is going to make up for it. Stuff like having a Twitter account or having a painfully contrived "Youth Day" is insulting at best.

I don't think that World Youth Day is "painfully contrived". The idea behind it is that it's a modern-day pilgrimage where Catholics from many different nations, races, and cultures can gather together and realize that they are united in their faith. I believe that it is just as relevant as any other religious pilgrimage that exists today.

I went to a Catholic Church too, it's just the upper echelons that are archaic and downright corrupt. The followers are just normal people like everyone else.

I wouldn't hold my breath on the new pope being any more liberal than the current one. Catholicism in Europe is a lot stronger and more restrictive than it's American side, to the point where church run organizations can cherry pick things that they couldn't readily do here (since infringements on rights trump religious beliefs) or have the influence to do (not a lot of Catholic run things in the US).

Since the pope is always picked by an overwhelming majority of European cardinals, I don't see things changing, besides finding a pope with a better record.

Maybe when we get a pope of our generation, or atleast the last.

But that's true in Europe too?

In some places it's a bit more grey.

Like Ireland.

How so?

Things like unscrupulous practices at Catholic-run hospitals with little to no legal recourse.

And there's the grey area around how a lot of those charges of pedophilia across Europe didn't get recorded on their criminal records (not to mention the lack of legal recourse).